Weekly Roundup... 4 April, 2018

Published on Apr 4 2018 9:19 AM

SuperValu has announced it raised €18,000 for the Simon Community in a drive for donations during Valentine’s Day. The retailer donated €1 from every Valentines meal deal sold across its 217 stores to the charity. “The campaign raised €18,000 demonstrating that Irish romantics still favour food to impress on Valentine’s Day,” the retailer said.

European grocery retail sales are set to hit €2.3 trillion by 2022, due to strong growth in Central and Eastern Europe, according to forecasts by IGD. The research firm said that in particular grocery markets in Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Russia are expected to see strong growth over the next five years.

Monthly retail sales in Germany declined unexpectedly in February, national data show. Sales fell 0.7% on the month in real terms, the Federal Statistics Office said. The third monthly fall in a row signalled that private consumption may remain weak in early 2018 after failing to add growth in the fourth quarters.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced its full takeover of Ele.me, a leading online food delivery and local services platform in China. The transaction values Ele.me at around $9.5 billion. Prior to taking control of the business, Alibaba held a minority stake in Ele.me, alongside its affiliate Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group Co., Ltd.

The newly proposed plans by the UK government to introduce a deposit return scheme for single-use drinks containers could cost up to £1 billion due to installation costs for deposit machines, the British Retail Consortium has said. While the price of plastic bottles would also likely go up, this added cost would be offset by customers being able to get their deposit back by using ‘reverse vending machines’, according to the BRC.

Tobacco brand Marlboro has been named the biggest-selling brand in the Dutch supermarket sector, making total sales of €455.5 million last year, well ahead of second-placed Coca-Cola. A report by the trade publication Foodmagazine in conjunction with IRI found that the total turnover of the 100 largest brands in Dutch supermarkets rose by 2.6% last year, compared to the previous year; around €8.3 billion.